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HEAVEN IS NOT REACHED AT A SINGLE BOUND; 
BUT WE BUILD THE LADDER BY WHICH WE RISE 
FROM THE LOWLY GROUND TO THE VAULTED SKIES, 
AND WE MOUNT TO ITS SUMMIT ROUND BY ROUND." 



MELROSE, MASS. 

M. J. CLARKSON, Publisher 

1896. 




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COPYRIGHT, 189C 

BY M. J. CLARKSON. 



MELROSE, MASS. 

DUNTON & POTTER, PRINTERS. 

1896. 



Co f^elen IDilmans, 
whose strong inbitnbuality fyas 
bttn a constant inspiration in 
tt>e uptDarb climb, tfyis book 
is lotnngly bebicateb by fyer 
frienb tt^e author. 

MELROSE, MASS., MARCH 4, 1896. 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. I. The Questioning Attitude. 

Chap. II. Faith. 

Chap. III. The Divinity of Man. 

Chap. IV. Man the Master Builder and Architect of 
His Own Fortune. 

Chap. V. The Law of Compensation. 

Chap. VI. Salvation Only Through Understanding 
of the Law. 

Chap. VII. Practical Application of the Law. 

Chap. VIII. The Control of Circumstances and Envi- 
ronment. 

Chap. IX. Tenacity of Purpose. 

Chap. X. Belief in the All-Good. 

Chap. XI. Aspiration. 

Chap. XII. The Magic Talisman of Health, Wealth 
and Happiness. 

Chap. XIII. The Top Rounds of The Ladder — The 
Broader Vision. 

Chap. XIV. The Top Rounds of the Ladder. — The 
Luxury of Absolute Confidence. 

Chap. XV. The Last Round of The Ladder — Love. 

Chap. XVI. Some Maxims of the New Life and 
Thought. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE QUESTIONING ATTITUDE. 



All men have faith in one thing or another, 
a belief taught in youth at the mother's knee, 
or absorbed with the mother's milk. If the 
man comes into this world in that part of it 
under the influence of the Mohammaden re- 
ligion, he is of that particular faith or belief ; 
if in a Christian land, he believes in Christian- 
ity ; or, among the Jews in Jewish dogmas. It 
is very rarely that a man differs from the be- 
liefs of his ancestors, or of the people with 
whom his lot is cast ; his environment colors 



his beliefs to a very great extent ; he is born 
into them. But the astonishing fact remains 
that he so readily accepts without questioning, 
whatever is thus thrust upon him. No matter 
if there are numberless religions and sects, and 
as many interpreters of what constitutes true 
religion as there are sands on the sea-shore, 
he still clings to the particular belief of the 
people, nation or family among which his lot 
is cast, and simply takes upon trust what the 
rest of his neighbors accept as truth. Now, as 
long as this condition exists, and he is content 
to simply drift along with the unthinking, un- 
questioning masses of humanity, he is asleep, 
as was Jacob at the foot of the ladder. ' It is as 
though he saw as in a dream only. The 
angels come and go upon it ; those strange 
and wonderful intuitions which deep down in 
his soul speak in this dream world of a life, 
a condition, a happiness, a freedom that exists 
somewhere. These intuitions are too vague, 
they partake too much of the nature of his 
dream-life to be comprehended. They flit be- 



fore him like the objects in a dream, all unreal 
and visionary, and just so long as they do, he 
sleeps on at the foot of the golden ladder 
which is ready to help him to an ascent to the 
very regions he has as yet but seen in dreams. 
Inert, ignorant, blinded ; heavy with slumber, 
he still dreams away his earthly existence, 
often without even planting his feet upon the 
first round of the ladder, by asking any ques- 
tions as to why he is there ? What he is doing ? 
What his destiny ? Why his powerlessness to 
avoid the fate coming to all men- — death and 
the grave ? But at last, thank heaven, the 
sleeper is awakening ; at last he is aroused, 
and we see him beginning already the up- 
ward climb from the dark valley to the re- 
gions of light and freedom ; and in this posi- 
tion he has just planted his foot upon the first 
round we call the questioning attitude. No 
longer satisfied to believe as did his father 
and grandfather, his nation or family, he is be- 
ginning to search for himself the wonderful 
regions of truth ; to inquire as to his destiny ; 



10 

to seek for reasons for his existence ; to study 
himself and what that self implies. He ques- 
tions, and in that attitude he rises from that 
long silence of the ages — the slumber of the 
night now passing from the face of the earth ; 
the helplessness of ignorance, and stupor of 
unreasoning intelligence to the questioning 
attitude which says, "What is Truth ?" " What 
is being ?" " What is destiny ?" Then out of 
the stillness ; out of the long night of igno- 
rance and of dulled and deadened intuition 
comes forth the voice of the now ; the now, 
pregnant with answer to all his questioning. 
It is only to those thus awakened and aroused 
that my little messenger will appeal. To 
climb my golden ladder you must first be 
willing to make the effort. I cannot boost 
you up. I can only point you to it, saying : 
Behold the way which leads up to the glories 
of this new day now dawning upon the world. 
From my summit I can see the many still 
heavy with sleep at the ladder's foot. Would to 
heaven I could rouse them, and stir their pulses 



II 

to begin the ascent which has brought me in- 
to this region of light, happiness and life. 
You to whom this message comes — if per- 
chance it should come to any still asleep and 
but dreaming of the golden rounds which 
bridge the way to the heavenlies — awake ! 
awake ! cast off the garments of dust and de- 
cay, of sleep and ignorance. Awake to the 
fact that you are a wonderful being, capable of 
scaling the very heights of immortality ; the 
possibilities of all life, happiness, wisdom and 
power. Many of you have taken the first step, 
have mounted the first round of the ladder 
and are saying, "Show me the way ; help me to 
climb to the heights you talk about as so sub- 
lime, so beautiful." In response I take you by 
the hand and in answering your questions I be- 
lieve I shall have made it possible for you to 
mount to the next round of the ladder, which I 
have styled — Faith. 



CHAPTER II. 



FAITH. 



In reading the advertisements which led you 
to the purchase of this little book you were in- 
fluenced by the hope of finding the way to a 
happy, successful life, and I am sure that you 
will not be disappointed. I think, indeed, if 
you will follow me carefully, from round to 
round of my ladder, you will be assisted to 
climb to just that elevation you long to at- 
tain. I may answei the question your mind 
is already formulating, because I know of what 
I am telling you. I do not believe, but know. 



14 

There is a vast difference in the two state- 
ments. To speak from actual knowledge 
presupposes experience ; to speak from belief 
alone, presupposes ignorance and an untried 
way. Theory will never compel faith in a 
truth, as does actual knowledge. So on the 
strength of this premise, I say that Faith was 
the next round in my ladder ; and that is a 
possession that ninty-nine out of a hundred 
lack, utterly. " Faith," you say, " well that is a 
very hackneyed statement. We have been 
told just that from time immemorial, and how 
is it going to help us ?" Well, listen ! I do not 
mean at all the sort of faith — blind faith- — 
you have heard about all your days from pul- 
pit, platform, and press, in the vapid nothings 
which prate of theoretical happiness and future 
bliss. I will tell you instead of actual realities, 
and living truths ; truths such as will fire your 
ambition ; awaken your ideality ; stir your en- 
ergies ; stimulate your hopes ; create in you 
faith in a faith, which will prove the lever to 
lift you above all doubt and discouragement. 



15 

And what is it to be ? Nothing, I assure you, 
on the old line of thought or action ; for there 
you were always told to look outside of your- 
self for needed help ; to lean upon others and 
to believe in exterior agencies. 

I say instead — Have faith in yourself. 
Faith in the wonderful possibilities enfolded 
in your own brain ; in the creative power of 
thought ; in the mastery of mind over condi- 
tions and circumstances. Instead of being 
the slave of either, rise to the dignity of ruler 
in your own household ; for do you not know 
that it is your glorious prerogative to take the 
reins in your own hands and rule instead of 
submitting like a galley slave to fate or cir- 
cumstances ? 

Well, if you did not know I will tell you 
now, and if a life can prove it mine stands a 
witness to the truth. As rapidly as I have 
grown in the understanding of it, have I 
proved this theory beyond a shadow of 
doubt. My faith has been met at every step 
by corresponding enfoldment of facts, and 



i6 

facts are stubborn things ; they speak better 
than fine-spun theories. 

Now what the world needs today are these 
very facts. Preaching of a heaven hereafter 
cannot satisfy a man with a hungry stomach. 
It will not clothe his children or keep the wolf 
from his door. It does not raise his wages which 
have been cut down by greedy capitalists, nor 
put the means in his hands for present happi- 
ness or even content. It is very unsatisfactory 
food for starving people ; and people are just 
now starving in more ways than one. Starv- 
ing for happiness, for love, for a reality, while 
they are being put off with an unreality — a 
heaven in the future, a crown and a city with 
golden streets. There is no end of visionary 
splendor for the ghosts of them, after they get 
out of their present misery ; shuffle off this 
mortal coil, which has yet so long to run that 
they often get tired of it, and put a bullet 
through the brain, or a knife to the throat, or 
poison in the stomach to stop the shuffling 
process and end all misery in a moment. 



i7 

Now this shows the need of the world today; 
and it shows, too, why this little book is written. 
Unless I can help you to mount the ladder it 
might as well not have been written. To help 
you I am pledged and determined. Indeed, 
according to my own faith it will be un- 
to me. I shall help you because I believe 
in you as I believe in myself, and I know 
you will never lay down this book after an 
hour's reading without being stronger, more 
of a man or woman, better able to cope 
with difficulties and to overcome them ; 
better able to surmount all obstacles and to 
climb higher and higher till you are head and 
shoulders above the "common herd." All the 
same, learn never to despise those who have 
not yet reached your level. Within them are 
the same possibilities awaiting unfoldment. It 
will be your privilege to show them to what 
heights they may attain, because you are there, 
and you were once one of them. 

But in those early days few had commenced 
the upward climb, and I lay sound asleep with 



the rest, thinking the dream the reality, and 
the reality nothing but the dream, a future 
life, perchance, but not the heaven, here and 
now, I know to-day. 

But there was a buzz and a stir one day, and 
I awoke to a dim perception of a coming 
something which was to change all things for 
me. I felt within me the quickening thrill 
that presages change. I slowly rose from 
my recumbent position, planted my feet 
on the first round of the ladder, and as- 
sumed the questioning attitude. For the first 
time in my life I began to use my brains to 
some purpose. I began to ask if what I had 
accepted all my life as truth, really was truth, 
or whether I had not been fooled into believ- 
ing a lie ? 

And I soon saw that I had blindly swallowed 
the traditions of my fathers ; gulped clown all 
the falsehood of ignorance and superstition as 
readily as though I had possessed no means 
of proving anything for myself ; as though my 
brains had been capable of nothing but absorp- 



19 

tion, and like a sponge had been sucking in all 
the baseless suppositions, that man in his ig- 
norance had evolved in the same sponge-like 
manner. Some of the stronger willed among 
men had formulated certain beliefs, to suit the 
seeming needs of mankind, and the rest had 
been simply content to aquiesce in them, and 
continue absorbing sponges ; drinking in the 
fables of the past, varied a little from time to 
time, to suit the exigencies of the present. 
For man did grow in spite of his ignorance ; 
he grew unconsciously, and the beliefs of the 
past often failed to fit the present, and so the 
old had to be modified to suit the new. After 
a time, however, the new wine of truth could 
not be put into the old bottles any longer ; 
these bottles began to show their weakness 
and to burst, letting the bright, invigorating 
elixir of truth and life free to run into new 
channels, and men began to see new truths, 
or rather to see truth at last undisguised, for no 
truth is new ; it is simply revealed to co n- 
sciousness, that is all. Man himself was the 



20 

receptacle for it, and in his ripening process 
he has gradually evolved it and given it to the 
light of day. 

But to return to my individual experience. 
There came a day when I began to question 
and that was the beginning of the climb, as al- 
ready noted. From that time on it has been 
a steady uplifting. My hands on the round 
above my head ; my feet ready to follow, as 
my head dictated, and always a sure upward 
stepping from round to round, till I one day 
found myself above the worry, the care, the 
turmoil of the toiling masses. From this 
summit, looking down, did I determine to aid 
my fellow beings to follow me upward in the 
ascent ; by council, by example, by demon- 
stration ; by every means in my power ; for 
surely it is a joy to do this and we long for 
company on the glorious heights. There must 
be a lone feeling even at the top, when one is 
comparatively isolated from his fellows ; and 
not only so, we are so constituted that happi- 
ness is not happiness unshared by others. In 



21 

the words of the old couplet we say, "A joy 
shared is a joy doubled." My questioning at- 
titude led me for the first time in my life to a 
faith in myself. Unconsciously so at first, be- 
cause I was still too timid, shrinking and un- 
balanced to perceive to what this was tending. 
But from the day I struck out to question and 
investigate, I had, because of that very atti- 
tude, faith in myself, and gradually began to 
lose faith in the beliefs imposed upon me by 
tradition. And just here is your position 
to-day if you have really begun to question 
the claims of the old, and to prospect for 
the truths folded up in your own being, 
ready to come forth at your bidding. Do 
not be afraid to plant your feet firmly on the 
second round of the ladder — Faith in yourself. 
Strike out even more boldly than did I, and 
say, / will know truth for myself, even though it 
destroy all these preconceived ideas ; cobwebs of 
superstition and ignorance. You are less ham- 
pered than I, for when I stood that day upon 
the questioning round, I had few comrades 



22 

compared with the number that will to-day 
keep you company. I stood with the few who 
were counted fanatics, dreamers, or, even worse 
than that, heretics and disturbers of the faith 
44 once delivered to the saints." To-day you 
join a goodly company when you take this up- 
ward step. Many have planted their feet 
firmly on this round determining to challenge 
the creeds and superstitions of past ages ; de- 
termined to break the yoke off their necks 
which has so long bound them to inherited be- 
liefs, and to learn for themselves what is life — 
what is truth? This questioning is throwing 
them upon their own inner intuitions. It is 
putting them in a position to climb to the 
second round, which I term — Faith in Your- 
self. 

And until you take this step you may never 
hope to get to the third round because there is 
no skipping. You can only mount one round 
at a time of the shining ladder. One round 
skipped and you only fall back to begin the 
climb over again. You cannot get to an un- 



-J 



derstanding of yourself until you have learned 
to have faith in yourself ; and understanding 
of yourself is recognition of one of the great- 
est truths of being, The Divinity of Man. 






llll 






4>> 
=0" 



CHAPTER III. 



THE DIVINITY OF MAN. 



The foundation of our system, the starting 
point or basic principle, is first to consider, 
and that is the God, or good in ourselves. 
Until we learn that we are part and parcel 
with the Infinite Law of Good, the Eternal, 
Immortal Spirit of the Universe, we can never 
think aright, nor can we lift ourselves out of 
the low condition in which we find the greater 
part of the world to-day. When we have 
learned this oneness with Infinite Life and Be- 
ing, we have begun also to understand what 
that union implies. 



26 

If one with the Life of the Universe ; one 
with this great power or force we call God, we 
possess, of course, like attributes ; and these 
may be made manifest when we have fully ar- 
rived at the consciousness of their existence. 

It is not to be supposed that the same 
power which has built us up as individuals to 
our present stage of growth, and has formed 
us men and women of intelligence, is at all 
likely to cease operations, as an ever growing 
power in us. And that power must always act 
on the mental plane, for the mind is the master 
who commands the forces under control to 
carry out all its plans, and when the conscious- 
ness is once aroused to the fact, and the indi- 
vidual begins to co-operate with this Eternal, 
Infinite Power, his whole world is changed. 
Instead of feeling himself a worm, a slave 
to circumstances, or to an arbitrary deity, 
who will destroy him if he does not lick 
the dust at his feet in abject humiliation, 
he awakes to a sense of his dignity as 
a freeborn citizen of the universe. He is 



27 

free to follow up the quest of truth ; free to 
exercise his own powers of thought, instead 
of humbly acquiescing in the beliefs of old 
traditions now grown obsolete with the world's 
advanced position. But how, some may ask, 
can you prove to us that we are divine ? I 
answer in two ways, to suit two classes of 
readers. 

To those who accept the Bible as authority, 
I say that the passages to prove it are numer- 
ous. That God is declared to be " All and in 
all ;" that " in Him we live and move and have 
our being ;" that, Christ himself affirms em- 
phatically our union and oneness with the 
Father. They are blind, indeed, who can read 
the Scriptures and fail to see this truth, which 
is embodied in all Sacred writings the world 
over. To the disbeliever of the Christian 
Scriptures I would adduce as testimony the 
researches of modern science, or better still, 
Metaphysics ; the conclusion arrived at by all 
the great thinkers of all ages of the oneness of 
all life, and that it is, as Helen Wilmans has 



28 

so tersely stated it, " a universe and not a di- 
verse." Taking as our starting point this 
fact that all life is one, we instantly arrive at 
our basic statement as to the divinity of man ; 
for being one with Infinite Life, or Law, we 
cannot be other than itself. We are it, and 
manifest our share or portion of it on the ob- 
jective plane of existence. This fact I cannot 
urge too strongly upon the student of this 
great science, for until he realizes it he cannot 
proceed one step ahead. Dependence upon 
an outside power is the source of all his weak- 
ness. Knowledge of his oneness or unity with 
the Infinite, his strength. It is the great atone- 
ment which the Christ in every man or woman 
must make — at-one-ment with the source and 
fountain head of all being. To be sure, he 
has never been separated, in one sense at least, 
from this source, but his ignorance has made 
the fact a dead letter to him, and so it has 
availed him little or nothing, where it is capa- 
ble of lifting him to summits of power and 
happiness yet undreamed of, It is as if a 



man had access to the wealth of all the Astors 
and Vanderbilts and yet went about a pauper 
from his lack of knowledge concerning his 
great possessions. And so the great mass of 
mankind stand to-day in relation to their 
magnificent possibilities of happiness and 
power. Paupers instead of gods — was there 
ever anything more pitiable ! So I say with 
all the emphasis I know how to command : 
Learn of your divinity ; accept your god-given 
right, and in its acceptance you will begin to 
realize as never before, your own worth. The 
god in you will become apparent to your con- 
sciousness ; and once thus apparent will be an 
ever increasing source of strength and wisdom. 
With the knowledge will come a capacity for 
happiness, for success, for overcoming, that 
would otherwise be impossible. As long as 
you deem yourself an imperfect, sinful being, 
so long you will stand right in one spot and 
fail to build yourself up in power, strength and 
beauty. But once see the god in yourself — 
your own divinity — and with it will come the 



30 

confidence which makes for success ; the seren- 
ity of mind so needful to build up your business 
or to preserve your health. The man who 
knows of his gold mines begins at once to 
draw from them that which will supply all his 
necessities or desires ; and so the man who has 
learned of his divine rights begins at once to 
use them for his upbuilding and soon finds that 
to the god in him all things are possible. 
What effort or enterprise can be unsuccess- 
ful to the Infinite ; and one with the Infinite is 
he not powerful to command his own destiny ? 
Why, you will begin to feel that to deny your 
own divine power is to deny the power of the 
Infinite, and would you say that anything was 
impossible to the Supreme Power of the Uni- 
verse ? Of course you may and do limit this 
power by your ignorance, but it is only in that 
way, and as wisdom grow r s, power follows close 
upon its heels. 

So you will begin to affirm and believe that 
you may become whatever your fondest hopes 
have painted. You have climbed a step of 



3i 

the golden ladder away from all your " can'ts " 
and " ifs " and "buts," and there is no limit to 
what you may become by continuing as you 
have begun. 




CHAPTER IV. 

MAN THE MASTER BUILDER AND 

ARCHITECT OF HIS OWN 

FORTUNE. 



It is however, but slowly dawning upon the 
perception of man that he is an embryo god 
and contains within himself all the attributes 
of god-like power, and this is only beginning 
to be more generally understood. In fact, for 
the first time in the world's history, mysteries 
are being cleared away and revelation itself re- 
vealed. 

It would seem a misnomer to call that reve- 
lation whose language is so obscure as to reveal 



34 

nothing, and. yet we may understand to-day 
what was obscure yesterday, and in the glare 
of day-light we perceive what would be inex- 
plicable to us in the darkness of night. So, 
past visions of prophet and seer were simply 
the spoken word of truth, which is to-day ful- 
filled in the light of consciousness, and we 
may put mystical language into plain every 
day English, that " he who runs may read." 
The seer has always been a see-er, far ahead 
of his times, because he has recognized this di- 
vine principle within and has given it fuller 
sway. What is needed in the upliftment of 
the race is the knowledge of this Invincible 
power as appertaining to man — in other words 
the knowledge of his divinity or godhood. To 
know this will mean to him, health, happiness 
and victory. I find it necessary to reiterate 
this all important truth ; to place it in every 
conceivable light that it may be clearly under- 
stood. We need ever this perfect Ideal held 
before us if we would attain to it. It is a stu- 
pendous thought that the All-Good awaits 
man's recognition of this fact. 



35 

To manifest, man must speak the word into 
manifestation, and he must speak it truly for 
true results. False words actualize as well as 
the true for a time ; hence, the unreal and 
seeming evil conditions of the world. It is 
because of this very power of evolvement that 
man is able to bring forth the false— as shown 
in the conditions of sin, sickness and death. 
Man and his circumstances are his own spoken 
word. It is his privilege to create, to bring 
forth and to have dominion. 

Out of the chaos of ignorance he is to 
evolve divine order, for the material is ready 
at hand for the builder. He has only to select 
what is suited to the building and to reject the 
superficial and false. If like a wise master 
builder he takes heed how he builds, and what 
is the foundation for his building, it will not be 
the false creeds and old beliefs in sin, sickness 
and death — the hay, w 7 ood and stubble of the 
past — but instead, the gold, silver and costly 
stones of the new thought, and " each man's 
work shall be made manifest ; for the day 



36 

shall declare it." I have quoted here a scrip- 
ture text which contains truth pure and simple. 
The day in which we now live is declaring it ;: 
every man's work is being proved and the sta- 
bility of his building material being tested as 
by fire. The hay, wood and stubble of false 
beliefs are being swept away, while the gold, 
silver and costly stones of truth remain. He 
who builds with such perishable material per- 
ishes with the building he has erected, He 
who builds with the imperishable becomes im- 
perishable. "Know ye not that ye are the 
temple of the living God and that the spirit of 
God dwell eth in you ? If any man destroy the 
temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the 
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 
Put in plain modern English, this text reads :. 
Do you not understand that you are the build- 
ing of the unerring Law of Good and that the 
mind of the Good is in you. If you tear down 
your building by wrong thoughts — false doc- 
trines — the very power divine within you— 
the Law r itself — destroys in obedience to the 



37 

mandate — obedience to its own consistency 
and immutability, which has constituted man 
the arbiter of his own destiny, and thought 
the creative power. For the temple of God is 
holy ; that is, entire, and whole, and should 
not be disintegrated and torn apart — otherwise 
destroyed. 

Here we may plainly understand the neces- 
sity of seeing body and mind as one and no 
division wall between. Failing to build wisely 
by good and positive thought, the Law, which 
is without variableness or shadow of turning in 
its results, condemns the false architecture of 
his untrue thinking, just as the government 
expert would condemn a building as unsafe 
whose foundation timbers were weak or in- 
sufficient to support the structure. Unless the 
house is built upon the sure foundation — 
Truth — it must sooner or later fall ; the condi- 
tions do not warrant its stability. Each man's 
building then depends upon himself, and not 
"upon some cruel fate, destiny, or personal god 
outside of himself, in whose hands he is but as 
•a toy to cast away, as a child would its dis- 



38 

carded plaything ; for the old beliefs that 
taught either fatalism or superstition were both 
equally undesirable, the extremes that meet,, 
notwithstanding their vast differences of state- 
ment and opinion. 

But now comes the New Thought of this 
day, the dawn of a better understanding of the 
problems of existence, and declares that man 
is his own builder and creator, and the Law 
justifies no one on the plea of either of these 
false and obsolete beliefs. Mind is the builder, 
and man by recognition of the fact, may direct 
the building as pleases him ; indeed, the build- 
ing shows the exact measure of his recognition 
of this Truth. Mind is Omnipotent, or in the 
familiar words of Scripture — "with God all 
things are possible." So when aspiration has 
lifted the man to his god-like position, what is 
to hinder the most sublime, stupendous results ; 
what, indeed, is to prevent his building a body 
that shall know no decay, nor wasting disease,, 
a body " made like unto Christ's glorious 
body," or what the ideal Christ typifies for the 
race — the immortal god-man. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE LAW OF COMPENSATION. 



Years ago, when walking with some friends 
near a railroad station, one of them, a very 
earnest believer in the Christian religion, was 
talking with great emphasis of the importance 
of believing in Christ as necessary to salvation. 
The other, an unbeliever, listened with mani- 
fest impatience, and then, as the train came 
thundering along the track, he pointed to the 
huge engine, puffing and panting like some 
living creature, and exclaimed : " There is an 
inexorable law which governs everything in 



40 

the universe, and you and I can no more es- 
cape its working than we could hope to escape 
death were we to throw ourselves in front of 
that iron monster of the rails." Although my 
sympathies at that time were more with the 
first speaker, these words sank deep into my 
consciousness, just as all truth finds lodgment 
in the mind, even when little understood. 
Sometimes, like a little seed falling into the 
ground and remaining latent there, lacking 
the right temperature or moisture to bring 
forth its hidden life, so words of truth often lie 
hidden for years without revealing their real 
meaning. So it was with this saying ; for al- 
though it often recurred to mind, it was long, 
long before it sprung forth as an active truth 
in all its significance as relating to the truths 
of existence. Law T , in those early days, wore 
for me only a stern visage, a merciless aspect. 
It was ever, "Thou shalt," or "Thou shalt 
not ;" and dreadful penalties were attached to 
what was termed violation of divine law. 
Even after I began to sec the unreasonable- 



4i 

mess of the old religious views, I still shrank 
from that idea of law, as a child shrinks from 
some terrible bogie pictured in the infantile 
imagination as terrible beyond conception. 

I can never forget the very day that I re- 
peated again and again the truth, God is the 
Law, the Governing Principle of all life, all 
existence ; and then for the first time Law took 
on an entirely different meaning. I saw that 
it held infinite possibilities for me and for all 
mankind ; and that it was to be hailed with 
delight as the emancipation from all ills. In- 
stead of being a terror it became a joy, be- 
cause I had learned to recognize its wonderful 
meaning and my relation to it. Then the 
words of long ago lost their dread significance, 
and I read between the lines the wonderful 
truth that I wish I could make clear to many 
as troubled as I had been before light broke 
in so wonderfully and with such lasting com- 
fort. "You can no more hope to escape its 
working " — No, very true, my friend of yore ; 
men may come and men may go, but Law goes 
on forever. 



42 

Cast yourself into its teeth and it grinds you 
to powder, as relentlessly as the mighty en- 
gine crushes whatever obstructs its passage 
over the rail. But mount the engine ; clasp 
the throttle ; understand your bearings, as 
does the brave engineer at his post, and you 
are carried along swiftly and surely over the 
shining track. The engine — the Law, has 
become your -servant to do your bidding and 
you fear it no longer ; it has been robbed of alt 
its terrors. Learning this great lesson you 
know 7 no longer fate, chance or accident, for 
you comprehend at last the law of compensa- 
tion. It is to you whatever your attitude to 
it — your destroyer or your Savior ; life or 
death ; hell or heaven ; misery or happiness. 
Compensation means payment in kind for all 
actions be they good or evil. There is no es- 
cape from this law ; nor need we wish escape ; 
it is our coign of vantage. 

We may reap as we sow and we may sow 
well and wisely and reap bountiful harvests, 
rich reward, ample compensation. Long has 



43 

the world disregarded this great, this vitaf 
truth and its law of compensation has been in 
bitterness and sorrow ; for the seed was bitter 
and the harvest was of the same sort. The seed 
never varies ; sow thistles of anger and hate,, 
and reap a thistle harvest ; or, deadly night- 
shade of fear, poisonous hellebore of doubt 
or passion, and the baleful crop is sure to be 
of its own kind, the law fails not. But with the 
knowledge of it, all is changed ; we now know 
that our destiny is in our own keeping. We 
see for the first time all that this great truth 
implies. The Law is now our friend, our won- 
derful helper and the provider of all that is 
good, beautiful and desirable in life. It will 
compensate for every thought seed of love 
and goodness. Ah ! what a step on our ladder 
we have taken when we come fully to know 
and realize this great truth. What rapid ad- 
vances we now make ; how we are lifted 
above the petty cares and vexations of life. 
We have grown too wise by reason of this 
knowledge to plant any more of these bitter 



44 



seeds in our garden of life. Henceforth it 
will be luxuriant with goodness and happiness. 
The Law is our benificent, most generous 
provider, and as we reap the fruits of our 
wisdom ; we have no desire to turn back to 
the old ways of sorrowful beliefs, when out of 
harmony with this great principle of all good, 
we were crushed beneath our own ignorance 
of its just reward. 

Now we are inexcusable if we suffer, having 
this sure and certain demonstration, if we 
choose to follow this beacon light of truth. 
In the words ascribed to David in his psalms 
of rejoicing, we say : I delight in the law, for 
unless it had been my delight I should then 
have perished in my affliction. Give me un- 
derstanding and I shall live. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SALVATION ONLY THROUGH UN- 
DERSTANDING OF THE LAW. 



The majority of people come to an under- 
standing of the law through the desire of 
health, or freedom from suffering. Having 
tried all the old systems of cure (?) hygiene, 
change of climate and everything which prom- 
ises relief, they see or hear somebody who has 
been relieved by Mental or Divine Science, 
and straightway they begin to investigate 
along these lines of thought, in a half-hearted 
way at first, but feeling that there may be 



4 6 

something in these systems after all ; or, at 
all events, that there will be no harm to try, 
seeing that no help is to be found elsewhere. 
In this way it is clearly evident that even sick- 
ness or suffering in whatever form it comes is 
a good and not an evil, on one plane of exis- 
tence at least, for by these very means have 
we been forced to seek truth and thereby to 
find our only remedy from the ills of life, 

As said Jesus, " the whole need not a physi- 
cian, but they who are sick ;" so the well see 
not their need of truth as do the weak or 
ailing, and sickness is therefore often a friend 
in disguise. In this way it is true that 

" The path of sorrow and that path alone, 

Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown." 

You may say that here I contradict my pre- 
vious statements as to suffering, having writ- 
ten several strong articles to prove it unneces- 
sary as an agent in our purification ; but not 
so. I only meant to convey the idea that we 
now may learn the laws of being so as to 
avoid suffering in future ; and that suffering is 



47 

only necessary to the ignorant and blinded 
soul who will not turn to the light and learn 
the way of life. It is an eye-opener but 
not a purifier ; wisdom purifies, while suffering 
pushes toward the light or conditions where 
wisdom may find entrance. 

It was through this desire for relief from 
physical discomfort that I first came to look 
into the law of being, as taught in Metaphysi- 
cal literature. I was fast losing my health and 
usefulness and suffering was constantly rob- 
bing me of all that was sweet or desirable in 
life. Although strongly prejudiced against 
these beliefs I saw that it was unreasonable 
to suppose that hundreds of people would run 
after a falsehood for any length of time. Fads 
and fancies captivate the weak-minded and 
thoughtless for a brief moment, but when in- 
telligent, reasoning people investigate and 
cling to a principle we may be sure that it has 
.some truth, no matter how much error may be 
mingled with it. So, when I saw strong intel- 
lects yielding assent to this new thought, and 



4 8 

sensible, level-headed folks affirming its value 
as a healing agency, I began to investigate, de- 
termined to try and demonstrate for myself 
what it was worth as a curative agent. 

Few have more to contend with than I did 
at that time. I was so strongly imbued with 
the old race beliefs; the old theological dog- 
mas had been so drilled into me from my 
childhood ; my environment was so unfavor- 
able to the cultivation of those new seeds of 
thought, that I often wonder now how I made 
such rapid progress and came so quickly upon 
the solid ground upon which I could plant my 
ladder of ascent, where I began the climb out 
of the old superstition and errors of former 
days, up into the regions of light and freedom 
that I now know. But as already stated in 
previous chapters, the questioning attitude 
had led me to faith ; this on to belief in my 
own divinity, or oneness with Principle, then 
to a better understanding of Principle or Law 
and being constantly fed with new thought the 
mind expanded, influencing the physical as it 



49 

ever does, and bringing about changes as the 
natural result. For, be it well understood, 
the understanding of the law is the only sal- 
vation from unfavorable conditions. We must 
be wise if we would be well, and we must learn 
the wisdom of life as we would learn any use- 
ful science. Our brains are intended for just 
this great work ; they were never meant to be 
simply absorbent sponges of other people's 
dogmatic theories. We are wise to sift all 
dogmas as we would the chaff from the pure 
wheat ; to prove all things by actual demon- 
stration and then hold fast to that which is 
thus proved. No teacher, no matter what his 
authority, eloquence or credentials, should en- 
slave our liberty of thought or interdict our 
privilege of thus sifting for ourselves, and 
proving the truth conclusively by that best of 
all tests — experience. 

The greatest truth of all the various schools 
of divine science is the one fundamental axiom, 
"All is good — there is no evil." Evil is but 
the shadow cast by an ignorant conception of 



50 

being ; the result of undeveloped mind or lack 
of spiritual consciousness. In one sense the 
very evil, so-called, is good, because it assists 
in the ripening and developing process. We 
never know anything only as we learn it by 
comparison, or by the law of opposites. No 
grow 7 th would be possible if there were no 
conditions for it, we could be innocent as 
babes and forever prattle in our childish way 
of the truths of being ; but virtue is the out- 
come of experience and of having climbed 
from round to round of the ladder of progress, 
and virtue is its own reward. Mark me — in- 
nocence is the babe, and virtue is the giant, or 
in other words, innocence is ignorance, and 
virtue is w 7 isdom or understanding of the law 
of being. The innocent suffer, but the truly 
virtuous are exempt from suffering ; for wis- 
dom is their safeguard and protection from all 
that can injure or destroy. Having learned 
the law we are able to apply it in every emer- 
gency of life, and doubtless first of all in the 
healing of physical ills. Health is absolutely 



5i 

necessary to us in order to follow up any ad- 
vantage gained. A sound body is the great 
desideratum ; the promoter of all successes in 
life ; for what is life worth to us when under 
the curse of ill health ? But the law teaches us 
our mastery, our lordship, our divine authority 
whereby we control our bodily conditions. 
We now understand the law. We are, indeed, 
a law unto ourselves, either creating our ills by 
our ignorance, negative attitude and inconsis- 
tency, or demonstrating health by their oppo- 
sites. We are part and portion of the one life, 
the one intelligence, and all possibilities lie 
unfolded within us. 

What life is, we are, and ignorance alone can 
bar us out of our rightful heritage — lords of 
creation, sons of God, heirs of all things. 



CHAPTER VII. 



PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE 
LAW. 



Many will say when they read this chapter, 
'" Well, after all I am no wiser ; I am not yet 
initiated into the wonderful secrets I expected 
to have revealed to me. Tell me precisely, 
what it all amounts to anyway ?" 

Did you ever read the simple Bible story of 
the distinguished leper who came to the 
prophet for healing and was told to go wash 
in the waters of Jordan and be whole ; how 
that at first he was inclined to scorn the 



54 

method entirely, because of its very simplicity, 
but finally yielding and accepting the statement 
with child-like trust, he found what he was seek- 
ing — perfect healing of his malady? How often 
the greatest truths are the simplest and need 
to be accepted with the most child-like trust. 
Except we become as little children, we can- 
not enter into this kingdom of happiness and 
well-being. The whole matter is summed up 
in one brief sentence of three words only — 
Think no Evil. This will bring you into har- 
mony with Law. Cling to the practice as the 
drowning man clings to the rope thrown out to 
save him from certain death. 

Begin at once, to-day, this hour, this mo- 
ment and act up to this one statement. Think 
no evil of anyone or anything. Believe that 
good alone exists for you in all the universe. 
By this habit you will draw to you every help- 
ful element, men will aid instead of opposing 
you ; circumstances will favor you in a most 
astonishing way. Health will flow to you 
spontaneously, it being the natural product of 
perfect harmony of being. 



55 

The tales of the Arabian Nights are no 
more wonderful to me than my own life has 
been since I came into this wondrous land of 
good and followed this law of the land. And 
this leads me up to one of the most intensely 
interesting chapters of my life. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CONTROL of CIRCUMSTANCES 
AND ENVIRONMENT. 



When I first entered the realm of new 
thought, my environment was as already 
stated, most uncongenial to the culture of the 
truth as I now understand it. 

I was a resident of a small factory village, 
removed far from all the advantages which I 
now began eagerly to desire ; not a soul who 
cared for such knowledge or would seek it 
with me, and to make matters apparently 
worse, I was surrounded by thought influences 



5» 

of a narrow, limiting nature. There was so 
much from which to break away, that at first 
I stood appalled and resistance for a time, only 
seemed to make matters worse ; it had the 
effect of making me very ill at times, as resis- 
tance to undesirable conditions almost in- 
variably does. It is a " kicking against the 
pricks," which is quite sure to react physi- 
cally in a manner altogether disagreeable. 
Struggle only binds the cords tighter till they 
sink into the tender, sensitive flesh, and wound 
and lacerate until we learn that our strength 
is to stand still. " Be still and know that I 
am God" — that the divine within if fully re- 
lied upon will make a way out of every seem- 
ing difficulty. 

It is the stone rolled away from the sepul- 
chre in which we have felt ourselves tied and 
bound until the fiat, " Come forth " sounds 
in our ears, and lo, every obstacle is removed 
and we walk out into glorious life and liberty. 

To all human seeming, I was unable to 
change my conditions. It seemed as if like 



59 

Prometheus I was chained to the rock of cir- 
cumstances and would never be loosed. But 
I ceased to struggle. I grew patient, I bided 
my time ; for I felt daily within me a grow- 
ing power that I knew was sure to prevail. I 
claimed the good, trusted it, believed in it 
continually, until at last the law of attraction 
and of compensation, responded to me because 
of my right attitude in relation to it. Barriers- 
fell away ; paths opened of which I had little 
dreamed ; friends came to my assistance ; there 
began a long series of wonderful changes in 
the great chain of events, each one helping me 
on to greater opportunities, better advantages, 
more congenial surroundings, happier circum- 
stances ; until I began to realize the power of 
my thought to control conditions and environ- 
ment. 

Do you not see what must be the peace and 
beauty of such a life ? As I remarked but yes- 
terday in writing to a friend, I no longer pray 
for light, because I am already in that light 
which knows no darkness. Every day but 



6o 



adds to the conviction that my fortress of 
good thought is impregnable, and nothing can 
prevail against me as long as I am sheltered 
there. 



<9~^^S^S>^S^S>^-9 



J^^^^^fc» 



^<S>^S><S^J) 



CHAPTER IX. 



TENACITY OF PURPOSE. 



If you look through the records of the good 
and great of all ages, you will find all possessed 
of one characteristic at least — tenacity of pur- 
pose. Not one but has bent every energy in 
this direction, whatever his ambition or aspira- 
tion happened to be ; to that he held with 
unswerving purpose. 

It is lack of this that keeps so many from 
the rewards of wisdom. They read metaphys- 
ical works, lessons of spiritual life, and scien- 
tific literature ; not only read, but are impressed 



62 

and believe all to be true ; but just here they 
fail to mount higher the golden ladder ; they 
lack .tenacity of purpose, continuity and per- 
severance. They grumble much because they 
fail of the reward of their search and study of 
scientific truth ; but how foolish and illogical 
their position. It is as if the scholar who had 
spent years in getting an education, should 
neglect to apply it in any way. He has 
learned to write but he does not use the pen ; 
to paint, but he essays not to handle the brush 
to a purpose. So you may have learned scien- 
tific truths — you have a head knowledge, but 
there you pause ; you carry your knowledge, 
no further ; you make no practical demon- 
stration, or you are discouraged easily and 
persist not in your effort to " prove all things 
and hold fast to that which is good." 

I speak from long observation on this one 
important point ; I have proved it by actually 
living it, but nine-tenths of those who make 
profession of scientific truth, fail to prove the 
beauty of the life because of this inconsistent 



63 

habit. Not a day passes but they talk and act 
inconsistently. They are slaves to the old 
habit of thought yet. They speak the lan- 
guage of the world instead of the new tongues 
of the new life. O ! that I could but lead you 
to see the value of this important point — con- 
sistency. I cease not to ring the changes on 
this wondrous chime of truth, and to assure 
you that this all important habit of consistency 
allied with tenacity of purpose will bring its 
reward as surely as the needle points true to 
the pole. 

There is a tendency in human nature to des- 
pond and grow discouraged when appearances 
are unfavorable. There are hours of uncer- 
tainty and seeming failure that try men's souls. 
If persistent at such times, holding steadily to 
belief in the good and swerving not from the 
truth, the reward is certain. 

I speak from a long experience. Through 
times of testing when all looked dark, I held 
thus tenaciously to the one purpose of my life, 
till I learned to know that the law was invari- 
ably true to me, when I was true to it. 



CHAPTER. X. 



BELIEF IN THE ALL-GOOD. 



I have met with nothing in the whole system 
of metaphysical thought that seemed to give 
offence or stagger so many as the statement 
that " all is good," and yet nothing needs to 
be understood more clearly to insure all that 
I have promised in this book, of health, wealth 
and happiness. 

To believe in the allness of Good and the 
Goodness of All is absolutely essential to the 
best results in solving our life problem. When 
we have learned to see this, beyond a shadow 



66 

of doubt, our position on the ladder is a very 
exalted one and we have surmounted the most 
difficult rounds in our upward climb. In- 
trenched in this position we invariably attract 
the good ; the Law has become our best friend 
and we know that it makes no mistakes but 
brings our own to us. " Like attracts like," 
and thus believing and living in the good, we 
become good and attract good. But, you will 
say, I have not answered the question, as to 
how all can be good, and you are waiting for 
an explanation of the problem that not only 
puzzles but distresses you, until you weary 
with the thought of it and grow discouraged 
and doubting. Hard as it seems, I think the 
explanation very easy ; so simple, in fact, that 
a child could understand it if clothed in suit- 
able language. All is good, because all is the 
result of invariable Law, which I think I 
have made very clear to you in the early chap- 
ters of this book. Man is a free moral agent, 
with the power of choice. If he were an auto- 
maton played upon by wires and made to do 



6 7 

this or that to his hurt, all would not be good ; 
but he is a being with the capabilities of a god, 
and can become what his highest ideal 
prompts by following it constantly and with 
purposeful will. Why complain when he 
learns that he possesses the power of creating 
liis condition and environment, by understand- 
ing of Law 7 . 

To the theologian I say — God, (Good) is all 
and in all — consequently, all is good. To the 
atheist and free thinker, I say : You are, con- 
sequently you can be and do whatever you 
will. If fate or circumstance can crush you, 
then fate or circumstance were a far worse 
devil than that of theology, and you lend your- 
self to a belief in devil or evil. But best of all, 
would I answer either class, by my maxim 
long held as the best statement of the view 
I could offer any one, namely : Demonstration 
is better than doctrine. 

I have proved beyond all doubt — and after 
a long trial — that all is good to me if I in- 
variably hold to the good, and what I can do, 



68 

every one can do, as my case is not an excep- 
tional one. I am a living exponent of my be- 
lief, daily and hourly. I have changed my 
physical conditions utterly ; my environment, 
as well, and am attaining to my ideals — slowly 
perhaps, but surely, by my persistent holding 
to the beliefs in the All-good ; and by seeing 
nothing but good in all that exists. " What- 
ever is, is right/' is only another way of say- 
ing, all is good ; and holding persistently to 
this I am actualizing all my highest aspira- 
tions, I do not feel that I owe the reader an 
apology for going over the same ground so 
frequently in these chapters, because it has 
seemed necessary to present the most impor- 
tant points of the Science of the New Thought 
in a way that will be apparent to the most 
careless or uninformed. Many will read these 
pages who have never made a study of the 
New Thought, and to such, all will be novel 
and will call for the elucidation of what might 
seem at first sight, or to the more experienced, 
the simplest features scarcely calling for such 



69 

elaboration. But, as the music pupil is re- 
quired to practice the scales or rudiments of 
music over and over and over again until he has 
perfected himself in fingering and command of 
the musical gamut, so the student of Divine 
Science must be thoroughly informed as to its 
fundamental points. The musician who has 
mastered scales may be said to have mastered 
the art ; so the scientist who understands the 
basic principle of the All-good, is never at 
a loss in his further search for truth. He has 
a stable foundation. 




CHAPTER XI. 



ASPIRATION. 



It would certainly be a round missing in my 
ladder were I to omit that most powerful 
factor in spiritual progress — Aspiration. For 
me the word possesses almost a magic charm, 
as if it were the " open sesame " to closed 
doors, or the angel to roll away the stone from 
the sepulchre of long buried hopes. Without 
it life were an utterly different thing and 
growth an impossibility. We all aspire in one 
way or another, only that aspiration for the 
many is generally known by the name of de- 



sire. But aspiration is of a more lofty nature 
and implies more than is understood by the 
word desire, which we apply more directly to 
the material plane of existence. Fame, riches, 
earthly power, beauty, etc., all material ob- 
jects which promise happiness, but in them- 
selves are not capable of yielding it, are 
desired by man. But, on the other hand, wis- 
dom, goodness, spiritual power, beauty of 
character, purity of heart, and the growth of 
individuality are the higher spiritual attain- 
ments after which he aspires. And with these 
loftier aspirations we rise to those levels where 
the objects of the lower or material plane are 
" added " without effort on our part or anxious 
thought. We estimate them at their true value 
in their relation to the real substance out of 
which all things are made. The lower realm 
yields up its treasures to us, because we have 
the dominion that the higher brings us. We 
need no longer toil for what is ours, or beg for 
what we already possess by reason of our one- 
ness with this Infinite Supply. 



73 

It is a wonderful revelation when we once 
come face to face with the fact that all things 
are ours, and we need not be pensioners or 
beggars longer, but that the Opulence of Om- 
nipotence is ours to command. O ! the free- 
dom that comes with such knowledge and the 
security as well. We feel that we can never 
be troubled or anxious again ; and all this has 
come through as-piration or purified desire. 

The gods are supposed to have their own 
environment and are not subject to the vicis- 
situdes that befall man. In other words, they 
have lifted themselves by aspiration to a 
higher plane of being where different condi- 
tions exist. And, mark me, aspiration has 
done it all. 

The man who aspires not — attains not ; but 
he who earnestly aspires draws to himself the 
conditions he seeks by virtue or power of his 
aspirations. It is, as stated in a previous 
chapter of this book — the law of compensa- 
tion. Aspiration, then, is the power that 
lifts. The word itself shows this tendency. 



74 

The church spire pointing" upward must have 
originated from this very desire in man to 
scale the heavens, and take possession ; and 
when we voice it, do we not come near that 
term so akin to it, viz., — spirit ? Spirit, which 
seems the focus of all life, the top or utter- 
most point of being, just as the spire is the 
point that reaches up, above earth and earthly 
objects. So spirit aspires to be lifted above 
the perishable into the imperishable ; above 
the personal into the universal or impersonal. 
And yet, do not understand me to mean by 
this the loss of the glorious individuality 
gained in our long upward climb. It has been 
the very object of the journey. There were 
no object in existence if we are to be engulfed 
in the Great Whole again ; all aspiration lost 
and swallowed up forever in the Source from 
whence we sprang. So aspiration does not 
lead us to the Nirvana of the Buddhist but 
rather to the heaven of the Christian, only that 
we have come to understand this heaven to be 
44 the tabernacle of God," or Good, "among 



75 

men ;" the kingdom here and now, when we 
are wise enough to enter it, and aspiration has 
opened the door to allow such entrance. 

It is after all only a clear understanding of 
Christ's words, " Blessed are they that hunger 
and thirst after righteousness for they shall be 
filled." Aspiration is the hunger and thirst of 
one who will not be satisfied with the empti- 
ness of life, as understood from the material 
standpoint, but reaches up for the fullness or 
completeness of the divine or spiritual nature 
which alone can satisfy. Does not the inspired 
writer exclaim, " when I awake in thy likeness, 
I shall be satisfied?" In other words, nothing 
but the divine nature and completeness can 
satisfy the aspiring soul. The Christ or 
Emanuel (God with us) must be revealed in 
man. Another great help derived from as- 
piration, is the fact that it does away with all 
the struggle and resistance so painful and un- 
necessary, and is the only way of following 
that wonderful maxim — " Resist not evil." To 
turn away from temptation and instead of re- 



/6 

sistance to bring aspiration into play, is to 
conquor at once and to put the temptation 
under our feet forever. He who aspires, re- 
sists not, for his aspiration lifts him where re- 
sistance is not required. Life ceases to be a 
struggle when Aspiration has come to us and 
we lose not our hold upon her. Like white 
winged seraph with shining star of radiance 
upon her steadfast brow, she guides us ever 
onward and upward till all desire to loiter by 
the way is lost and our eyes are fixed continu- 
ally upon her glorious sun-lit countenance. 



^s*s*s*^ 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE MAGIC TALISMAN OF HEALTH, 
WEALTH AND HAPPINESS. 



Nothing appeals more forcibly to the reader, 
I am well aware, than statements based upon 
personal experience. The questions naturally 
arise : " What do you know in positive proof 
of all you affirm ? Is it not more theory than 
fact ? Are you not writing far ahead of 
your actual experience, etc.?" To all such 
questions I would reply definitely I do know, 
either by actual experience as far as I have 
gone, or, from the unfailing law of cause and 



78 

effect, as to the possibilities of the future. I 
was once talking of this personal experience 
to a friend — a man of unusually fine intellect 
and reasoning powers — when he said, as from 
the earnest conviction that truth always in- 
spires : " You have hold of a magnificent truth, 
no doubt ; but do you know what it implies, or 
where to it must naturally lead ? Well, the in- 
ference is that you ought never to die." " Ex- 
actly," said I, " that is just where this belief is 
supposed to lead. Man is not always to perish 
like the beasts. Even your belief (he was a 
clergyman of the Episcopal church) teaches 
that a time will come when that last enemy- 
death — will be destroyed and swallowed up in 
victory ; and St. Paul is supposed to have said, 
1 we shall not all sleep (die) but we shall be 
changed; Is not this change or transforma- 
tion what we may naturally expect, now that 
man begins to control the physical so success- 
fully ? Is it not the 'dominion' promised but 
never yet recognized and almost entirely lost 
sight of ; the teaching of the Christ only just 
being understood to-day ?" That was a little 



79 

further than my friend could prospect even 
with his active brain, and I am well aware that 
such a theory is deemed insane by the majority. 
Wise heads and spiritual minds are not want- 
ing, however, to acknowledge the possibility 
of this change from the human to the divine — 
spoken of in Scripture, as " the manifestation 
of the sons of God " — or to see that it will be 
just as much in the line of natural law as are 
the wonders of steam or electricity. 

The law of " vibrations " now being widely 
investigated has a deep significance to the 
student of mental or spiritual truths. The 
quickening of vibrations evidently means finer, 
more spiritual substance. Is it difficult to put 
this and that together and so solve our dis- 
jointed life puzzle ? 

The Bible teaches that " the quickening of 
the Spirit " is " eternal life." Science says the 
same thing in other words, as well as by ex- 
periment and test. May we not therefore, cal- 
culate to a nicety, from such premises, just 
what we may expect of the future ? I have 
arrived at the conclusion, based upon positive 



So 

fact, not theory, that I have in my possession 
the magic talisman of health, because it has 
never failed me when I have been consistent. 
It is simply an unwavering trust in the Good, 
and continual conciousness of my oneness with 
it ; a subject upon which I have laid great stress 
in these chapters. If a false appearance pre- 
sents itself, I ignore it at once and go on my 
way as if I were not aware of this shadow cross- 
ing my path. Immediately, it is seen to be the 
shadow and not the substance. My talisman 
for wealth is the same. I trust the Infinite 
Supply knowing its sure and certain response 
to my constant recognition of its bounty and 
unfailing resources. If the grim shadow of 
want, or limitation, looms ahead I turn im- 
mediately to the sunshine of opulence which 
I know always exists for me, and lo ! the 
shadow has disappeared and my want is sup- 
plied. So with happiness, I shun its opposite 
and all the symbols which help to materalize 
it. Many have come into the New Thought 
bringing a great load of the old thought rub- 
bish with them — crosses, tears and self abne- 



8i 

gation ; beliefs in pain, sorrow and innumer- 
able trials to purify. These with me are 
utterly cast behind and with them has gone 
the sorrow they helped to actualize. Why, my 
dear " scientific " friends, what are you think- 
ing about to talk so glibly of " a heaven, here 
and now," while you continue to prattle away 
of the hell that still holds these abominations ! 
Is there — can there be sorrow in heaven ? You 
are apt at Bible quotations ; but you seem to 
forget its declaration that there is no sorrow 
there, " Neither sorrow nor crying nor any 
such thing for the former things are passed 
away and all is become new." So, if you still 
sorrow you have not reached my heaven, al- 
though you may have climbed many rounds 
of the ladder. A dear, lovely friend sends me 
verses, as follows : 

" I cannot say 

Beneath the pressure of life's cares to-day 
I joy in these ; 

But I can say 

That I had rather walk this rugged way 

If Him it please." 



82 

Now this is of the old, and not of the new 
life, and until cast out and utterly eliminated, 
sorrow will inevitably dog the footsteps of all 
who entertain such thoughts and beliefs. 
There should be no " pressure of life's cares," 
and no "rugged way to walk," and there is 
certainly no God pleased by such sentiment 
as this. Put it away with everything of a like 
nature, and look for happiness instead, and ex- 
pect it as confidently as you expect the oxy- 
gen in the air you breathe to sustain life. Do 
not — 

' ' Try to still 
Bach rising murmur, and to God's sweet will 
Respond, Amen," — 

believing it is " His sweet will " that you suffer. 
You would dishonor a loving parent by such 
an implication and you certainly dishonor the 
All-Good by trying to transfer such beliefs to 
the new life. No, by all means cease trying to 
graft these old gnarled branches of a dead 
theology upon the luxuriant growing tree of 
life. Believe in the All-Good ; " only believe." 



83 

*' But why," cry many, " do we fail so utterly 
when we try so hard ?" Let me tell you : A 
mere trifle may destroy your trust if you allow 
it ; and your trust in the good is your talisman. 
Let me instance one out of many ways of do- 
ing this : No one can make a practice of read- 
ing the daily papers and retain this magic 
charm or talisman. These papers are full to 
the brim of the world's old beliefs in sin, sick- 
ness and death. If you wish to keep informed 
as to the important events of the day, take a 
journal that will give you, briefly, facts worth 
knowing unmixed with extraneous matter. 

The world is at present undergoing its tran- 
sition time, when the less we see of its folly 
and ignorance the better. See only what is 
absolutely necessary for business purposes ; or, 
as throwing light on the great problems of the 
day as they bear upon the newer thought. 
Leave the recital of the world's sin or sorrow 
alone ; attract it not by dwelling upon it. I have 
heard this pronounced selfish and unfeeling, 
but on the contrary it is the highest wisdom 



8 4 

and most helpful course to take. It will fit 
you to send out the strong thought the world 
needs for its uplifting. Refuse to see evil, 
slights, misfortune, accidents, sickness and 
death, and you will be lifted to an environment 
that will be entirely removed from them ; or 
you will see them with vision so suffused with 
the light of truth and goodness, as to be un- 
moved by the sight. I have seen a dear sci- 
entific friend lifted over what the world would 
have termed the saddest bereavement without 
a pang of sorrow ; and yet her's is a most 
loving, sensitive, high strung nature. She is 
simply in heaven where sorrow's reach not, and 
carries the talisman with her day and night. 

So may we all come to our desired haven 
where no angry storms threaten, or floods des- 
troy. Here in these placid waters anchored 
steadfastly to the glorious Truth, we sweetly, 
safely rest. And here we await the arrival of 
the many belated and tempest tossed crafts 
that will surely one day drop anchor beside us 
in this blessed haven, upon the borders of a 
land of joy and peace unending. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE TOP ROUNDS OF THE LADDER. 



THE BROADER VISION. 



When you are on the* top rounds of the lad- 
der you can see a great stretch of country 
that the soul beginning its climb cannot per- 
ceive at all. Your horizon has widened. You 
can take in a broader sweep every round you 
mount, until at last you hardly know where 
earth and sky meet. In other words, you 
know not where the line of demarcation be- 
tween the natural and the spiritual can be 
drawn. All seems blended into the great 



86 

whole. Trifles now lose their power over you. 
You see them not for they are lost in the 
broader view. Like the great artist who trans- 
fers to canvas the wide landscape in all its sub- 
limity of land, river and mountains, instead 
of niggling away at the grass and weeds at his 
feet, so you are able to enter into the life of 
the Infinite ; to see no separate trifles, but all 
as a great and stupendous whole, matchless in 
beauty and grandeur. What are the little vex- 
ations of life that once harrassed you ? Where 
the people who injured or annoyed you ; the 
circumstances that fettered you ; griefs that 
saddened, and disappointments that em- 
bittered your life ? All vanished, and in 
their place the one perfect, harmonious whole, 
working for ultimate good. There can be 
no mistake, you say and feel. Your posi- 
tion is too high to admit of the slightest 
doubt as to the rest of the ascent. You have 
no inclination to step downward, for each up- 
ward mount has made you more fearless, more 
sure of your progress, more in touch with the 
purer atmosphere of the heights. The clear 



87 

air of this altitude is full of vigor ; it quickens 
the pulses, sharpens the intellect, and renews 
hope and courage daily. 

It is here you can help others to ascend, 
because you have lost sight of the inequalities 
of life and now see with the broader vision of 
Infinite love and justice. You cease to quar- 
rel with creature or circumstance. You would 
quarrel with yourself as soon. The oneness of 
life has leveled all, and yet it is the higher level 
of absolute truth and justice. 

Come, oh ! come, my brothers and sisters, 
haste away from the dark domains of indecis- 
ion, "the vale of tears," "the slough of des- 
pond," " the quagmire of doubt," "the valley 
of the shadow of death." I reach to you a 
helping hand, I plant firmly for you this 
golden ladder and bid you ascend into the re- 
gions of light and happiness and peace which 
passeth understanding. It is a veritable 
heaven and it is to be entered through the 
Christ door of your own divinity. No one 
can scale the heights who mounts not the 
true way. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE TOP ROUNDS OF THE LADDER. 

THE LUXURY OF ABSOLUTE 
CONFIDENCE. 



Very few people understand the luxury of 
absolute confidence in anything ; they are the 
subjects more or less, of fear of one sort or an- 
other ; the fear of sickness, poverty or mis- 
fortune stares man in the face in the most re- 
lentless fashion and robs him of peace, to say 
nothing of happiness or enjoyment of life ; 
for who can be even cheerful for any length of 
time with these great obstacles in the way of 



go 

it ? If the New Thought did nothing else but 
implant this confidence in the mind of man it 
would be of all things desirable, and this I can 
assure you is one of the direct results follow- 
ing upon the acceptation of this belief. 

This sense of absolute security is the founda- 
tion of all happiness and well-being. For 
quite a while I wondered at the great peace 
that had come to abide with me, and at 
the joy which often flooded my whole being. 
Coming finally to analyze it, I found it was 
because of this sense of security — the perfect 
trust in the Immutable Law which knows no 
variableness, nor shadow of turning. It is, I 
reasoned, my own fault if anything disturbs 
this beautiful trust in Infinite Good. As long 
as I am faithful, the Law is my friend, helper, 
protector and provider. I have nothing in all 
the world to fear. In days gone by I had 
known what it was to awaken in the morning 
with a feeling of depression, or to lie down at 
night with a nameless dread ; but now the 
waking moment s one of hopeful anticipation 



9i 

and the closing hours of sweetest peace. 
" Free from care, from labor free," I can enter 
the realm of restful sleep for recuperation and 
renewed vitality, feeling as safe, when alone 
and unprotected, as though surrounded by an 
army of watchful sentries. And why this un- 
bounded confidence that no evil will happen ; 
this perfect trust, this absolute sense of secur- 
ity ? Simply because that to him who sees no 
evil, there is no evil. Like only, attracts like ; 
thought is creative, and over the invisible 
wires of mentality come only those things pro- 
jected by the mind. Our mind is our com- 
missary department and supplies us with just 
the stores we have ordered by our messenger- 
thoughts, and the habitual mental attitude 
determines the character of the supplies from 
this great store-house of Infinite abundance. 
So daily and hourly I have sent out the right 
thoughts and the response is never contrary to 
orders from headquarters. 

Absolute confidence then in the good, im- 
plies absolute protection, and supply, and 



what can man ask more than that. One thing 
only, and that too is his, and may be had by 
true thinking. It is the last round of my 
golden ladder, and from it you may step into 
the very Garden of Paradise itself. 



^^^^^if^^^^^^^l f fgHS*S>Wr . _ 




<S*S*^j!^<S*©*S>-; 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE LAST ROUND OF THE LADDER. 



LOVE. 



As already hinted the last round of my lad- 
der should take us into Paradise or Heaven it- 
self, but be it understood that Heaven is not 
intended to mean a far-away abode of the 
blest, where the souls of departed friends are 
supposed to abide in cities of golden paved 
streets, with seas of glass and thrones, harps, 
crowns, and wings and things of ancient sym- 
bology. No such conclusion has been reached, 
I am sure, by the good common sense of my 



94 

readers. Our heaven is here and now, not a 
locality, but a condition — a habit of thinking 
which correlates to itself whatever rightfully 
belongs to it because of its adherence to the 
good. And now the grand ultimatum is 
reached, and found to be simply " the fulfilling 
of the law" — Love. Through habits of true 
thinking we have come to see all as good be- 
cause all is one, a grand indivisible whole and all 
the result of one undeviating law of absolute 
goodness, So we know for the first time the 
true meaning of love, and know it fulfills the law 
in seeing nothing to hate, nothing to despise 
in all the universe. For all we now behold as 
either climbing the ladder, or yet unawakened 
at its foot ; and surely, we would never think 
of condemning the sleeper for his senseless 
dreams or even the somnambulist who uncon- 
sciously walks in his sleep. The sleeping man 
we deem to be irresponsible. So, then, are the 
many yet unawakened to truth. 

As for those in different stages of growth or 
on different rounds of the ladder ; we know 



95 

they are mounting upward even though the 
ascent be slow or painful ; it is evolution 
and that is ever onward and upward. And 
with this view of life, all is changed and love 
rules supreme in our hearts for all mankind. 
Not the mistaken notion that personality is to 
be loved or ignorance to be regarded other 
than it is — undesirable and unwelcome, what- 
ever its form or action. But we no longer des- 
pise the sleeper or the climber. We no longer 
judge either class. We simply go our way 
loving and living the law of absolute goodness 
and by so doing drawing to us all desirable 
conditions. Moreover we have by degrees 
risen above personality into glorious individ- 
uality, and that means emancipation from all 
evil. 

Do you ask me if I am there and if many 
stand with me thus free from what has so long 
been the curse of the race. In reply I can 
truly answer yes, and although I can yet count 
upon my fingers my companions, that means 
much to me, for the position that even one or 



9 6 

two have attained, the multitude may yet 
reach. 

Do you ask if there is nothing to be desired 
beyond this standpoint ? Ah ! then I would ex- 
claim yes, everything" ! for this is but the step 
across the threshold and an eternity of growth 
and unfoldment lies beyond. The ever ripen- 
ing mind or spirit is constantly becoming more 
capable of appropriating the truths ready for 
revealment as it reaches the point of contact 
secured by individual growth alone. And with 
added wisdom comes added joy ; even the 
process of growth is a happiness, and we learn 
to watch it as we would watch the unfoldment 
of some rarely beautiful plant but with this 
difference. The plant buds, blossoms, fruits, 
fades and dies ; but the immortal mind — which 
is the man — forever buds, blossoms and fruits. 
It is consciously that which knows no death 
nor decay. It is the tree in the midst of the 
garden of life, whose fruit is imperishable, 
" whose leaf doth not wither, and — look! 
whatsoever it doeth shall prosper." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

MAXIMS OF THE NEW LIFE AND 
THOUGHT. 



Life is exactly what we make it, sweet or 
bitter according to our habit of thought. 

Did you ever watch the steel filings creep up 
to the magnet, surround it and cling to it ? 
Then you may understand the lav/ of attraction 
embodied in you, when you understand the 
working of this law. You may attract to you 
whatever you need or desire. 

We may walk through unclean places with- 
out defilement when we have reached the 



9 8 

heights of understanding. The mud or error 
clings not to our garments, nor does the grime 
of iniquity soil their snowy whiteness. We 
mingle freely with the low and debased of 
earth, children of ignorance, and yet partake 
not of their thoughts, hence their earthly con- 
ditions are unknown to us. The higher ego is 
of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. 

When we come to realize that all the condi- 
tions of life are evolved by our thoughts, we 
will guard them as we would treasures of price- 
less value, and will seek constantly and un- 
remittingly to add to our store of good things. 
The higher, nobler the thought, the better ex- 
ternal condition, the outer corresponding with 
the inner. 

All is good but on different planes of ex- 
pression or manifestation. 

The growing mind recognizes more and 
more of the Universal Law of Good, and rec- 
ognition means the pow r er of appropriation, 
and appropriation, manifestation. 



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